Personal exercise devices are plentiful in the commercial marketplace. However, there are many shortcomings that make personal exercise devices inconvenient and cumbersome to use. Most personal exercise devices limit the user to resistance for motion in only one direction. This is undesirable because there are many benefits to working out opposing body parts equally and in the same motion. Moreover, some personal exercise devices may provide the user the ability to adjust the direction of motion that is resisted; however, all of these devices require that the user reconfigure the device, change grips, or make other physical modification to the device or the user's position in order for the user to move the device in an opposite direction. Constantly reconfiguring the device, the user's position, and/or changing handles or grips introduces wasted time that needlessly increases the duration of the exercises and does not allow the user to benefit from the effective continuous range of motion that can be achieved by a machine that resists motion in two substantially opposing directions without any adjustment of handle grip, machine configuration, or the user's position.
Thus, there is a substantial need in the art for a personal exercise device that provides resistance training in two linear directions without requiring the user reposition his/herself, to reconfigure the exercise device, and/or change his/her grip on the device.